Understanding John Lennon
Francis Kenny
Foreword by Bill Harry
Shepheard-Walwyn Publishers
At the start of his biography of John Lennon, Francis Kenny says that he is the only biographer of John Lennon who has spent all his life in Liverpool, the implication being that he has an edge over his competitors. I would question whether that actually gives you more insight into the mind of John Lennon but it doesn't look like he has put that experience to very good use as the biography has a very long list of books consulted and of You Tube clips. The TV documentary The Real John Lennon (2000) is credited in its eight parts on You Tube. There is a surprisingly short list of interviews that he has done for the book - only two! - and they are John's half-sister Julia Baird and Freddie O'Brien. I'm not sure who Freddie O'Brien is but someone of the same name made plaques for Beatle sites in Liverpool, so it's probably him. It therefore seems that Francis Kenny could have written this biography in Southampton with a crate of books and an internet link.
I find the bibliography very curious. Without question, the ultimate Beatles researcher is Mark Lewisohn and yet he is omitted in favour of the murky research and conclusions of Albert Goldman (Lord have mercy) and Geoffrey Giuliano (to my mind, even shoddier than Goldman). The press release says that this new book is the only work to reveal the true sources of John Lennon's genius, but how does Kenny know that if he doesn't know what is in Lewisohn. Whoever edited this book should have told to mention Lewisohn and if needs be, say what Lewisohn got wrong or omitted.
Here's one example: the coroner's report on the death of John Lennon's mother is in Liverpool Central Library's archives: it could contain informative background information, but, despite working at BBC Radio Merseyside (possibly because of it!), I have not been able to see it as access is restricted to family members.
Having said that all that, Francis Kenny has used his sources well and written a highly readable, 300-page study of John Lennon that is likely to find favour as we reach the 80th anniversary of his birth and the 40th anniversary of his death. However, I don't think that there are any new findings or conclusions and as that is what the media wants these days, I don't think it will be getting much attention.
The press release says "With new material revealing the real source of inspiration of 'Strawberry Fields' (sic), Francis Kenny offers us a thought-provoking insight into a complex mind and a genius in the making." When the single was released in 1967, those of us in Liverpool knew that it was based around the children's home which backed onto John's house in Menlove Avenue. Kenny points that the children in the Salvation Army home attended local schools and were not deprived and so maybe John is contrasting their contentment with his own unhappiness. But who's to say that these children weren't unhappy and what is known of John's moods? He was a tearaway who needed someone strict and although Mimi was tough, she wasn't hard enough as he never got down to his studies and only scraped into art school after failing Art at O-Level.
Kenny thinks that the song is also revealing John's own predicament in the Beatles in 1967. However, compared to most groups, the Beatles didn't have major upsets. For starters, none of them were related, a factor which caused considerable damage to the Everly Brothers, the Beach Boys, the Kinks and later on those Beatle copyists, Oasis.
For a book that wants to get to fundamental core of John Lennon, Kenny is for too ready to assert he was a genius. John did claim to be a genius from time to time but that doesn't mean he was. If he was a genius, then what words do we use for Mozart, Miles Davis or Louis Armstrong? It's better not to use the term at all.
This is a biography of a well-known figure and if you write a biography, say, of Abraham Lincoln or John F Kennedy, then you say who killed them and why. This book does not do that which is surely ridiculous. The killer did it because he wanted fame and so to deny him that reference makes sense, but it also makes nonsense of the book. The name must be there. Whether the author likes it or not, Mark Chapman is part of the story, and I must admit I felt uneasy then when I typed his name. Ironically, it was the assassination of John Lennon that triggered the surge in Beatle interest throughout the world, which led to Liverpool rebranding itself as a tourist town.
Spencer Leigh
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